Psalms 69:30-31

69:30 I will sing praises to God’s name! ¹ 

I will magnify him as I give him thanks! ² 

69:31 That will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull

with horns and hooves.

Hosea 14:2

14:2 Return to the Lord and repent! ³ 

Say to him: “Completely ⁴  forgive our iniquity;

accept ⁵  our penitential prayer, ⁶ 

that we may offer the praise of our lips as sacrificial bulls. ⁷ 

Hosea 14:1

Prophetic Call to Genuine Repentance

14:1 Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,

for your sin has been your downfall! ⁸ 

Colossians 1:7-8

1:7 You learned the gospel ⁹  from Epaphras, our dear fellow slave ¹⁰  – a ¹¹  faithful minister of Christ on our ¹²  behalf – 1:8 who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

Colossians 1:2

1:2 to the saints, the faithful ¹³  brothers and sisters ¹⁴  in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you ¹⁵  from God our Father! ¹⁶ 

Colossians 4:16

4:16 And after ¹⁷  you have read this letter, have it read ¹⁸  to the church of Laodicea. In turn, read the letter from Laodicea ¹⁹  as well.

Philippians 2:17

2:17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice together with all of you.

Hebrews 10:20-22

10:20 by the fresh and living way that he inaugurated for us ²⁰  through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, ²¹  10:21 and since we have a great priest ²²  over the house of God, 10:22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in the assurance that faith brings, ²³  because we have had our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience ²⁴  and our bodies washed in pure water.

Hebrews 13:15-16

13:15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, acknowledging his name. 13:16 And do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, ²⁵  for God is pleased with such sacrifices.

Hebrews 13:1

Final Exhortations

13:1 Brotherly love must continue.

Hebrews 2:5

Exposition of Psalm 8: Jesus and the Destiny of Humanity

2:5 For he did not put the world to come, ²⁶  about which we are speaking, ²⁷  under the control of angels.

[69:30]  ¹ tn Heb “I will praise the name of God with a song.”

[69:30]  ² tn Heb “I will magnify him with thanks.”

[14:2]  ³ tn Heb “Take words with you and return to the Lord” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[14:2]  ⁴ tn The word order כָּל־תִּשָּׂא עָוֹן (kol-tisa’ ’avon) is syntactically awkward. The BHS editors suggest rearranging the word order: תִּשָּׂא כָּל־עוֹן (“Forgive all [our] iniquity!”). However, Gesenius suggests that כָּל (“all”) does not function as the construct in the genitive phrase כָּל־עוֹן (“all [our] iniquity”); it functions adverbially modifying the verb תִּשָּׂא (“Completely forgive!”; see GKC 415 §128.e).

[14:2]  ⁵ sn The repetition of the root לָקַח (laqakh) creates a striking wordplay in 14:2. If Israel will bring (לָקַח) its confession to God, he will accept (לָקַח) repentant Israel and completely forgive its sin.

[14:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “and accept [our] speech.” The word טוֹב (tov) is often confused with the common homonymic root I טוֹב (tov, “good”; BDB 373 s.v. I טוֹב). However, this is probably IV טוֹב (tov, “word, speech”; HALOT 372 s.v. IV טוֹב), a hapax legomenon that is related to the verb טבב (“to speak”; HALOT 367 s.v. טבב) and the noun טִבָּה (tibbah, “rumor”; HALOT 367 s.v. טִבָּה). The term טוֹב (“word; speech”) refers to the repentant prayer mentioned in 14:1-3. Most translations relate it to I טוֹב and treat it as (1) accusative direct object: “accept that which is good” (RSV, NJPS), “Accept our good sacrifices” (CEV), or (2) adverbial accusative of manner: “receive [us] graciously” (KJV, NASB, NIV). Note TEV, however, which follows the suggestion made here: “accept our prayer.”

[14:2]  ⁷ tc The MT reads פָרִים (farim, “bulls”), but the LXX reflects פְּרִי (pÿri, “fruit”), a reading followed by NASB, NIV, NRSV: “that we may offer the fruit of [our] lips [as sacrifices to you].” Although the Greek expression in Heb 13:15 (καρπὸν χειλέων, karpon xeilewn, “the fruit of lips”) reflects this LXX phrase, the MT makes good sense as it stands; NT usage of the LXX should not be considered decisive in resolving OT textual problems. The noun פָרִים (parim, “bulls”) functions as an adverbial accusative of state.

[14:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “For you have stumbled in your iniquity”; NASB, NRSV “because of your iniquity.”

[1:7]  ⁹ tn Or “learned it.” The Greek text simply has “you learned” without the reference to “the gospel,” but “the gospel” is supplied to clarify the sense of the clause. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[1:7]  ¹⁰ tn The Greek word translated “fellow slave” is σύνδουλος (sundoulo"); the σύν- prefix here denotes association. Though δοῦλος is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.

[1:7]  ¹¹ tn The Greek text has “who (ὅς, Jos) is a faithful minister.” The above translation conveys the antecedent of the relative pronoun quite well and avoids the redundancy with the following substantival participle of v. 8, namely, “who told” (ὁ δηλώσας, Jo dhlwsa").

[1:7]  ¹² tc ‡ Judging by the superior witnesses for the first person pronoun ἡμῶν (Jhmwn, “us”; Ì⁴⁶ א* A B D* F G 326* 1505 al) vs. the second person pronoun ὑμῶν (Jumwn, “you”; found in א² C D¹ Ψ 075 33 1739 1881 Ï lat sy co), ἡμῶν should be regarded as original. Although it is possible that ἡμῶν was an early alteration of ὑμῶν (either unintentionally, as dittography, since it comes seventeen letters after the previous ἡμῶν; or intentionally, to conform to the surrounding first person pronouns), this supposition is difficult to maintain in light of the varied and valuable witnesses for this reading. Further, the second person is both embedded in the verb ἐμάθετε (emaqete) and is explicit in v. 8 (ὑμῶν). Hence, the motivation to change to the first person pronoun is counterbalanced by such evidence. The second person pronoun may have been introduced unintentionally via homoioarcton with the ὑπέρ (Juper) that immediately precedes it. As well, the second person reading is somewhat harder for it seems to address Epaphras’ role only in relation to Paul and his colleagues, rather than in relation to the Colossians. Nevertheless, the decision must be based ultimately on external evidence (because the internal evidence can be variously interpreted), and this strongly supports ἡμῶν.

[1:2]  ¹³ tn Grk “and faithful.” The construction in Greek (as well as Paul’s style) suggests that the saints are identical to the faithful; hence, the καί (kai) is best left untranslated (cf. Eph 1:1). See ExSyn 281-82.

[1:2]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).

[1:2]  ¹⁵ tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:2]  ¹⁶ tc Most witnesses, including some important ones (א A C F G I [P] 075 Ï it bo), read “and the Lord Jesus Christ” at the end of this verse, no doubt to conform the wording to the typical Pauline salutation. However, excellent and early witnesses (B D K L Ψ 33 81 1175 1505 1739 1881 al sa) lack this phrase. Since the omission is inexplicable as arising from the longer reading (otherwise, these mss would surely have deleted the phrase in the rest of the corpus Paulinum), it is surely authentic.

[4:16]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “when.”

[4:16]  ¹⁸ tn The construction beginning with the imperative ποιήσατε ἵνα…ἀναγνωσθῇ (poihsate Jina…anagnwsqh) should be translated as “have it read” where the conjunction ἵνα functions to mark off its clause as the direct object of the imperative ποιήσατε. The content of the clause (“reading the letter”) is what Paul commands with the imperative ποιήσατε. Thus the translation “have it read” has been used here.

[4:16]  ¹⁹ sn This letter is otherwise unknown, but some have suggested that it is the letter known today as Ephesians.

[10:20]  ²⁰ tn Grk “that he inaugurated for us as a fresh and living way,” referring to the entrance mentioned in v. 19.

[10:20]  ²¹ sn Through his flesh. In a bold shift the writer changes from a spatial phrase (Christ opened the way through the curtain into the inner sanctuary) to an instrumental phrase (he did this through [by means of] his flesh in his sacrifice of himself), associating the two in an allusion to the splitting of the curtain in the temple from top to bottom (Matt 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45). Just as the curtain was split, so Christ’s body was broken for us, to give us access into God’s presence.

[10:21]  ²² tn Grk “and a great priest,” continuing the construction begun in v. 19.

[10:22]  ²³ tn Grk “in assurance of faith.”

[10:22]  ²⁴ sn The phrase our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience combines the OT imagery of the sprinkling with blood to give ritual purity with the emphasis on the interior cleansing provided by the new covenant: It is the heart that is cleansed and the conscience made perfect (cf. Heb 8:10; 9:9, 14; 10:2, 16).

[13:16]  ²⁵ tn Grk “neglect doing good and fellowship.”

[2:5]  ²⁶ sn The phrase the world to come means “the coming inhabited earth,” using the Greek term which describes the world of people and their civilizations.

[2:5]  ²⁷ sn See the previous reference to the world in Heb 1:6.